<p>Ok, I'm an International High School in Italy and my dream is to study in the USA.
I want to major in Cognitive Science because I have a strong desire to learn in varous subjects (things that in Italy is not possible to do).
I have chosen some colleges I'd like to go, but they seems so far away from my range (because of my grades). So I ask you for some help to find colleges I could apply to.
This is my "profile":
- 4th year of school (out of 5)
These are my grade (they're scored out of then in Italy, and I translated them into the US system using an online software)</p>
<p>Italian: 7/10 - B
English: 7/10 - B
History: 6/10 - C
Philosophy: 7/10 - B
Math 8/10 - A
Physics: 7/10 - B
Comp Sci 8/10 - A
Science (Biology, Chemestry, Geology): 7/10 - B
Art (History&Drawning): 8/10 - A
Physical Ed: 8/10 - A</p>
<p>My GPA should be (according to the site where I translated the grades) 3.28</p>
<p>I'm planning to raise some of them, and get:
Science: 8/10 (I was almost there..)
Physics: 8/10 (the same as above)
History 7/10
Art: 9/10
Computer Science: 9/10
English 8/10</p>
<p>With a GPA of 3.72 (I think)</p>
<p>These are my ECs:
- played the piano for 4 years (but now I stopped)
- journalist for two webzines
- math club
- cinema club (in English)
- English-speaking club (last year)
- learning spanish by myself.
- National Olympics of neuroscience (last year and I'm planning to do them again this year)
- National Olympics of Math (did not very well)
- National Olympics of Physics (did not very well).
- Won the Kangourou of English (an English contest)
- Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects / videomaking course
- taking free classes on Coursera and Edx sites.
- learnt German for three years in middle school
- this summer I'll do a stage (a non-payed internship I think this is) at the library</p>
<p>I'd like to go somewhere where there's always the sun. No freezing cold weather, not much rain, absolutely not snow.</p>
<p>Please suggest me matches, safety school and reach school!</p>
<p>You should be accepted no problem. This link should take you to wiki to see a list of colleges and universities that offer an actual cogsci degree and similar programs with either a different name or focus.[List</a> of institutions granting degrees in cognitive science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_institutions_granting_degrees_in_cognitive_science]List”>http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_institutions_granting_degrees_in_cognitive_science)
by the way what are your interests cuddle sign says the more competition approach as opposed to psychology which has more social approachif you want to do computational linguistics or artificial intelligence that’s the field for youbut if you’re considering working with actual people cognitive psychology is a way to go no you can still do the cognitive science degree with an emphasis on fieldwork best of luck</p>
<p>sorry about thatwhat I meant to say was cognitive science has more computational approach as opposed to psychology which take some more social approach</p>
<p>by the way California is a state you want to go to if you want warm weather but New York me have the better institutions and cognitive science programs</p>
<p>I have problems with cold weather haha!
Yeah I’ve looked on Wikipedia too! But I wanted some tips from the forum, 'cause I do not the reputations and really how good are the colleges!</p>
<p>If it helps here are my last SAT practice score:
CR: 470-530
M: 580-660
W: 520-650 / 46-56</p>
<p>Have no idea about your grade standing in Italy, some times, a 3.28 gpa is very good in one country and very poor in another.
But based on your SAT superscore, you can try UC-San Diego which is in the top of this field.</p>
<p>And be prepared to pay full load in UC as a foreign student, that is going to be closed to 60K per year.</p>
<p>yeah, money are not a problem!
3.28 gpa is US system based, but this is a translation made by some site… I don’t know if it’s right. My school is very strict.</p>
<p>UCSD is one of my option, yes!
Some other help? Also safety school and reach school!</p>
<p>What do you think of me getting into UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Cal State Fresno (is it really bad? I read something…), MIT?
Others suggestion?</p>
<p>I was also thinking about UPenn… what do you think? How’s weather there?</p>
<p>If your grades mean what you say they mean, Berkeley and UCLA are out. MIT and Penn are out; besides, the weather in these last two cities is contraindicated.</p>
<p>the list StOrmTrooper has provided you is a compilation of schools who use the term “cognitive science” in their department names. It is as if the wiki went thru a database of American colleges and pulled out the colleges with a department with the words “cognitive science” in it. Cognitive science is a broad field, and many good departments in cogsci are going to have names like neuroscience, cognitive behavior, neurobiology, etc. So it would be helpful if you could learn a little bit more about the kinds of cogsci in which you’re interested and the variations each department in each school offers. Try starting with this website and when you list your areas of interest be open to areas that have words or roots like cognition, neuro-, philosophy of mind, -linguistics, artificial intelligence (if you have any interest in that), behavior-, etc. Avoid the ones that sound too medical, like neurology, neurosurgery, etc.</p>
<p>[College</a> Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential - College Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)</p>
<p>If you must have a warm, sunny climate, much of California is hard to beat. Florida, New Mexico, and Arizona are also candidates for sun and heat. Not all the colleges in these states will be suitable in terms of weather, but many will.</p>
<p>I do love cognitive science program, all of it. I think it’s a bad idea to do only a part of it (only neuro-, only artificial int etc…)</p>
<p>What if I raise my grades (as I wrote in the first post)? Will it be better for UCLA, uc Berkeley?</p>
<p>I searched for colleges, I just wanted some human interaction! A real person can help me much more than a machine :)</p>
<p>What about occidental college? Or cal state (Fresno), UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz? Are they good school?
Since I’m a international and I’ll spend a lot to come to the USA, I want to know if they are worth it. Are they challenging, maybe a little difficult, serious colleges? And what about UCSD?</p>
<p>All the UC’s are good schools but some are better than others. I think your scores are too low for internationals at the top ones UCB, UCLA and UCSD. Why Fresno state? Very dreary area, not a sort of school I can see going out of the country for if you can afford full pay elsewhere.</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz - good school, one of the smaller public uni’s here, beautiful area, sounds like a possibility for you
Occidental - good small college.
UCSD - very good
All those schools should be challenging</p>
<p>Be aware that Northern California gets rainy and cold in part of the winters. No snow. Today it is 65 in Southern Cal and Santa Cruz, and 60 in Berkeley, though–mild</p>
<p>I just read so many bad things about UCSD… Ugh…
Thank you so much for the help! I’ll try and raise my gpa!
If someone has got something to say about these colleges - I can’t wait to read it! :)</p>
<p>Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando [URL=<a href=“Tapatalk”>Tapatalk]Tapatalk[/URL</a>]</p>
<p>Ahm, and CC College Search matches me 99% with ucsd lol.</p>
<p>Perhaps you could ask over in the UCSD board about the things you’ve heard and whether they’re true. They have a super neuro program. </p>
<p>About cogsci: I’m not suggesting you don’t love it all. I’m suggesting that you look beyond the name of the department to determine if they do it all. Secondly, let me remind you that grad programs in the U.S., which is where you’re going to want to go to grad school since the research jobs in Italy are rare, are going to lean toward their strengths, whether that’s biological, linguistic, psych, compsci, etc. You’ll want to choose courses with grad programs in mind. Check out this description of a top cogsci program:</p>
<p>[Graduate</a> Program | Department of Cognitive Science | Johns Hopkins University](<a href=“http://cogsci.jhu.edu/graduate/]Graduate”>Graduate | Cognitive Science | Johns Hopkins University)</p>
<p>It sounds like the broad interdisciplinary graduate dept that you would want.</p>
<p>In want to do grad school and also PhD. Maybe med school, but I want to do a lot of comp sci things as well.
Where’s John Hopkins? How’s the uni? Is it a top school?
What about grad school at UCSD? Is it good?</p>
<p>You talk about grad school, but do I want to think about it now? I mean, maybe I’ll change the college, won’t I? And since cog sci Is a very large major, it opens me lots of possibilities for grad school. Shouldn’t I think about grad school when I find out in which subject I do better?</p>
<p>And also do you think that the John Hopkins undergrad program is better than the UCSD undergrad program?</p>
<p>You want to stay in warm climate, that automatically eliminated a lot of good schools, JH included.</p>
<p>let me bring us back to the task at hand: cogsci and broad neuro undergrad programs where a candidate with a 3.4 (seems more realistic than a 3.7) can gain admission in a city that’s no colder than Florence most of the time. I think Baltimore, where Hopkins is, is still too cold. So let’s say schools from Richmond on a somewhat sagging clothesline over to San Francisco. Anything south of the clothesline is a candidate: from east to west that includes VA, TN, TX, NM, AZ, CA, and everything south of those states. Unfortunately, cogsci and neuro are not as frequently found in the south as they are in the northern and midwestern states.</p>
<p>Reaches: Texas Christian, UCSanDiego, UCSB, USanFrancisco
Matches: Wofford C, Georgia State, Maryville C, UArizona, UCSantaCruz, CSUFresno</p>
<p>Fresno is not bad, but I won’t pay OOS/international tuition for Fresno, and there will be no FA at all there. Same as CSUStanislaus.</p>
<p>Ok, just to make this clear.
It’s difficult to translate grades from italian system to us system. I made this with an online application, but there is something wrong. First of all, gpa is always something.0, never .3, .5 etc… Second, the C grade there is set at 60&, but actually, in my school, 6/10 is 70%, and that’s a B. Plus, in Italy there are only integers as grades. That means that (for example) my physics and my science grades result as 7/10 (B), BUT actually they are almost 8/10 (A). That’s why I planned to get A the next semester.
Last, in Italy there are different type of schools. I’m in the Liceo, and it is like you have ONLY AP classes.</p>
<p>Anyway, I like very much UA program! Maybe I’ll apply there too.
Someone knows how’s the area there?
Most of the other colleges you suggested me have no cog sci program.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this helps (or gets me more opportunities), but according to my sat test prep, I’ll get a 1900. I hope to raise it a bit, but I don’t know if I’ll can.</p>